Turbo equalization systems use two soft output decoders to process encoded codewords (e.g., they take turns processing a given codeword). Since the two decoders may operate at different speeds, buffers are used to store partially decoded codewords while the two decoders are busy with other codewords. Sometimes, the size of such buffers is fixed (e.g., because the turbo equalization system is implemented in hardware, such as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other semiconductor device). Under certain conditions, these buffers may overflow. For example, if one of the soft output decoders is performing multiple local iterations on a particular codeword (e.g., because there is a lot of noise or errors in that particular codeword) then a buffer may become full and additional codewords cannot be stored in the buffer, resulting in buffer overflow. Techniques for managing buffers that store partially decoded codewords in turbo equalization systems would be desirable.